Marriage Celebration

Staff Sergeant Carl Smith, Captain Larry Doane, and First Sergeant Sam Morris on Forward Operating Base Four Corners before conducting a joint security patrol with the Afghan National Army

(Host) This week, we're looking
at the Vermont National Guard's deployment to Afghanistan from a soldier's perspective with Captain Larry Doane, a VPR
commentator.

In today's entry, he
describes joining a celebration for an Afghan marriage.

(Doane) Saving enough money to
get married can be the major obstacle to a young Afghan man's happiness.

The interpreters
assigned to my unit are no different. They're
all trying to save enough money for a wedding and prove themselves to a
potential bride's family. It's what
drives many of them to continue to work with us, despite the danger and long
hours.

My ‘terps', as we've
come to call them, are a brave lot and take the same risks my own troops
take. The nickname itself is a term of
endearment around here and carries the same dignity as our own makeshift titles
of ‘grunt' or ‘doc'.

One night, as our day
winds down two of the terps approach me with a request and an invitation. The request is simple. They need a tent to throw a party. The invitation comes in the same breath. Would I like to attend an Afghan engagement
party? As I raise my eyebrows one of the
other interpreters interjects. "It's
like a bachelor party! We must celebrate
that he has finally found a wife!"

Later that night I find
myself in a very different place than anything else I've experienced so far in Afghanistan. Indian and Persian music fills the tent,
occasionally punctuated with the odd Madonna or other American pop song. Afghan men are far less concerned with
western "macho" ideas than my own troops are.
We quickly discover one example of this.
The ‘man dance'.

In a scene that I can't
ever imagine happening in my world back home, our tent is filled with Afghan
men dancing and laughing together.
Glitter and confetti are everywhere as the celebration continues.

The dancing is strange
mix of traditional local styles and things they could have only seen on MTV. I'm initially uncomfortable with the sight, but
the sheer hilarity and joy of the event takes over and soon I'm laughing and
clapping along. I manage to stay on the
sidelines while some of my troops are dragged into the circle. And for a little while all of us get a break
from the stress and the worry of this war, courtesy of the Afghan man
dance.